Alderweireld warns: Tottenham must fight, not flirt

Tottenham need – Retired Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld says the club need to rebuild with players who will fight for the badge—pointing to Cristian Romero’s uncertainty, the leadership chaos it could cause, and Tottenham’s need for a reliable striker after two difficult

From Antwerp, Toby Alderweireld watches Tottenham slip further from the standards that once felt non-negotiable at the club. The 37-year-old is enjoying a slower post-football life—his retirement has included luxury spirits at MM Antverpia. hikes in the Andes. time in Ibiza. and moments with his wife Shani and their two kids. But when he talks about Spurs, his tone sharpens.

Alderweireld believes the problem is simple and stubborn: the squad isn’t built for pressure. and it’s costing the club its identity. “The squad was not good enough for Spurs. We need to go back to players who can perform and handle the pressure and play with heart for the club. ” he tells Daily Mail Sport.

He frames the solution as a return to the kind of mentality Spurs used to carry so naturally. “Fans want players who will fight for the club and badge. Getting new players, that’s the way it is. You need players you can count on.” In his eyes. those standards were embodied by “Sonny (Son Heung-min)” and “Harry Kane. ” players he says were “never below a 7/10.”.

Even the recruitment philosophy, Alderweireld argues, needs a clear spine. “You need to buy players who are ready. Of course you can buy players with potential, but you need the core to be so solid. Then you can have a young guy with potential who can learn from some situations.”

Tottenham, though, are already moving in the direction Alderweireld describes. Andy Robertson has been confirmed as a signing from Liverpool. Marcos Senesi looks set to follow him through the door from Bournemouth when his contract on the south coast expires at the end of June.

There is also unfinished business. Tottenham have submitted two bids for Brighton’s £70million-rated centre back Jan Paul van Hecke, but both overtures have been rebuffed.

For Alderweireld. this feels like an attempt to correct earlier summers when Spurs spent lavishly on mercurial talents with little. or no. Premier League experience. He doesn’t dismiss outsiders—“some of the best players in the league’s history arrived as outsiders”—but he sees the safer route as building a dressing room with tried and tested names.

That matters because Spurs appear to be wrestling with an leadership issue that won’t wait for recruitment to settle. Captain Cristian Romero is at the center of it all, and Alderweireld says the situation is both disruptive and symbolic.

He points to Romero’s winter outburst: the 28-year-old appeared to criticise the club’s hierarchy for “lies” and later blasted their “disgraceful” transfer window in a social media post. Alderweireld calls that willingness to speak out “bravery,” saying it’s “disruptive but commendable.”

But the football side of the story, Alderweireld says, has been harder to forgive. Since he turned up in 2021, Romero has had four red cards—“more than any other Premier League player in that time.”

And then there is the uncertainty about his future. Alderweireld notes that Romero “has been mealy-mouthed about his future at the club, which appears to be running out of road.”

“It’s not positive when your captain is rumoured to go away,” Alderweireld admits. “That needs to be cleared very quickly. If he goes, he goes. If he stays, we need to get back to the mindset to become very solid.”

He insists he doesn’t want to tear down the player himself. “I don’t want to kill him. He’s an unbelievable player. He has a good attitude and fights for the club. Your captain needs to be the face of the club. the team. and when he’s doubting staying. if that’s true. you need to go. We’d need someone else.”.

Alderweireld says the captaincy also has to be backed by smart discipline in matches. “I like him very much. He’s very aggressive. he wants to win duels. but you need to know when you do it and when you don’t.” He uses an Old Trafford example to spell out what goes wrong: “If you’re playing away at Old Trafford. your team cannot go one man down. that’s impossible. and not in the 20th minute.”.

He puts the decision-making into a simple risk calculation. “You have to balance that. this is a 50-50 duel. but always in your mind. if I lose it. it’s not a big. big problem. If I get a red card, that’s a big, big problem. Keep your mind always and try to get the right decision. It goes very quick but you need to learn. So many red cards doesn’t help the team, that’s very simple.”.

For Alderweireld, the club needs speed now. “We have to have an answer very quick. If he’s staying, keep him captain. But he needs to be good for the team. The club needs to be number one.”

There is a different kind of leadership story around Spurs too. and Alderweireld says he is impressed by Roberto De Zerbi—while also warning the tasks in front of him are enormous. He says De Zerbi “won three of his seven games to steer the club to safety. ” and adds that his preparation was relentless: “He and his six backroom staff slept at the hotel at Spurs’ training ground and would obsess over tactics late into the night. even dragging in players for discussions past 9pm if they were staying over before a home game.”.

Still, the wider cracks remain. Alderweireld says goals were a problem for Spurs last season “at both ends.” Only the relegated sides conceded more, and Spurs scored 48—“in the same ballpark as Nottingham Forest and Leeds.”

“They need a good striker,” he says, and he doesn’t hide his doubts about Tottenham’s options. “That’s the most difficult position in the team. No one really took the responsibility to score goals.” He also mentions the frustration of comparing everything to Harry Kane. describing how the ball can be used as control when things get hard. “Comparing with Harry Kane is normal because he was there a lot of years. Keep the ball. I call it a rest point. when things are getting difficult. he can play the ball. he can hold it. the team can move up.”.

For Spurs, Alderweireld adds, two seasons of failure have made it hard to judge where the club truly belong. “They certainly have no right to European football after years of being outwitted by smaller clubs.” Yet he also insists the league is not finished writing its next chapter—pointing to how Manchester United can bounce back. “But if Manchester United can bounce back from 15th to 3rd in the space of a season. why can’t Spurs reclaim a Champions League spot?”.

He believes the first real marker doesn’t need to be grand. “For Alderweireld, just moving up the table would be a start. ‘The one thing you don’t want is another season like this, the stresses… you have to see progression’”

The message from a former Spurs garrison in the backline—between 2015 and 2021—lands with weight precisely because he isn’t speaking in football slogans. It’s about role, responsibility, and reliability: the kind of players and standards Tottenham can’t afford to keep negotiating with.

Toby Alderweireld was speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail in association with BOYLE Sports 2 Goals Ahead. The early payout offer allows fans to back a team and if they go 2 goals up at any point during a 90 minute match (e.g 2-0. 3-1. 4-2). BOYLE Sports will immediately settle as a winning bet. no matter the final result. Go to BOYLE Sports for more.

Toby Alderweireld Tottenham Hotspur Cristian Romero Andy Robertson Marcos Senesi Jan Paul van Hecke Roberto De Zerbi Premier League Harry Kane Son Heung-min transfer news